This invention relates generally to chairs and seats of the safety padded type used for holding infants and children while riding in an automobile. The invention further relates to infant seats of the type which are positively and releasably anchored to an auto seat by use of conventional automobile safety belts.
(As used herein, the term "infant" is intended to apply to infants from birth to approximately two years of age. The term "child" is intended to apply to older children.)
It has been proposed in the prior art to utilize a self-contained infant safety seat in conjunction with the conventional auto seat for holding infants and children. Such prior art devices may encompass a general chair or seat type contour which is secured to the automobile seat by rigid hooks which fit over the back of the vehicle seat. It has also been proposed to utilize the automobile safety seat belts to secure the base of an infant-type safety seat and use a harness in conjunction with the seat to restrain the infant or child. There are other types of constraints or attachments to an automobile seat which are well known.
Some of these infant or child seats can take the form of a simple box-like construction with a folding back, such as that disclosed by Langefeld in U.S. Pat. No. 2,875,816, in which the base is used to store such implements as baby bottles or the like. Another simple device is disclosed by Post in U.S. Pat. No. 2,327,288, which, again, shows a backless, simple box seat, harness straps, and a bag attached to the seat base for storage. It is also well known to have a table top construction which may be used in conjunction with this seat. Thus, for example, Berman, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,735, discloses releasably attaching a table or work surface to the arms of a chair.
Other infant seat constructions are well known in the prior art and range in variety and complexity. Thus, for example, a child's car seat is disclosed by Hyde et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,556. The device is so constructed as to permit an infant to be placed in a sitting or reclining position. Ragsdale, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,986, discloses a baby seat which is so constructed as to mount the baby so it will sit rearwardly in the seat. Also, the interior portion of the infant seat may be removable to provide a separable and carryable baby seat.
The prior art devices are believed to be proportioned so as to comfortably accommodate infants within a restricted range of physical ages. The result is that, if a seat is proportioned so as to accept and hold an infant, as the child matures, he quickly outgrows the seat. Nevertheless, the child very often remains too small to sit comfortable on the adult-sized car seat. By contrast, if the infant seat is proportioned to accept a "child", a small infant will not be conveniently and comfortably accommodated.
None of these prior art devices, however, is so modificable as to accommodate an infant as he grows into early childhood. Thus, the use of such devices are believed to be limited to small infants, and small infants alone. Larger children must be strapped separately into a car seat, as disclosed by Dillender in U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,247.